Dogs

“Broad-shouldered city boy Roman (Dragos Bucur) wants to sell off his grandfather’s sprawl of grassy land and brush, right on the border with Ukraine. But the caginess of the caretaker he meets is merely an aperitif to the area’s casually vicious morass of nefarious intentions and brutality—it’s all run as a criminal fiefdom by shadowy capo Samir (Vlad Ivanov)… An impressively assured and expertly assembled feature debut from Romanian commercial director and novelist Bogdan Mirica, this tale of a man claiming a huge inherited country estate and finding deep-rooted corruption takes its cues from American return-of-the-repressed backwater thrillers.” (Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment)